It is quite possible that the 90^th anniversary of the founding of Tuvan people's Republic will be welcomed with a new national anthem. The necessity of composing a new chief song of the republic, with words and music that would correspond to contemporary realities was discussed at a common conference of the Soviets of the Government and the Supreme Khural, which took place on 21 March.

The feature film "By the Will of Genghis Khan" was released to the movie screens of this country in 2009. It took several years to make yet another epos about the great conqueror, kilometers of film and almost 10 million dollars. At the premiere everybody applauded the film crew and the director  Andrei Borisov,  who is also the minister of culture of Yakutia.

It almost seemed that the Yakut film  will conquer the entire planet, and will get the well-deserved awards… The blow came from an unexpected direction: the sponsors, because the Yakut film was filmed for more than the budget money, demanded return of the money. It was explained that they supplied the money in advance, and that the film did not justify their expectations.

One of the few Russian analogs of the Dead Sea - Tuvan lake Dus-Khol will this year officially receive the status of a therapeutic - recreational location of regional significance. The government of the republic set a task for the appropriate agencies at a conference on 16 March, to prepare all the necessary documents  for securing this legal status. The new status will obligate the organs of administration  on all levels to provide more effective security and rational utilization of this unique lake, which has long been known all over the country for its therapeutic properties.

At Tuvan State University, a final meeting of Tuvan scholars  with representatives of South Korean educational canal EBC ltd. Production Purme took place. At this meeting, the guests shared their impressions of Tuva after a two-week stay in the republic. Remember that the guests arrived to the republic at the end of February to film a fifty-minute documentary film about Tuvan culture, shamanism and way of life.

The ridges of the Sayans can be translated into Russian as "million of ridges", and that is how I remembered the name of these mountains. In the grey times of long ago, a great catastrophe took place in the Sayan mountains, as they say.  When a terrible hurricane flew in from the direction of the Black Heaven, people and animals who lived in the region left those places, as they say. Places where berries grew were all destroyed, and mighty trees fell uprooted.

One shaman of heavenly origin conducted a ritual to stop the blows of the terrible hurricane, as they say. But suddenly a powerful  gust of the wind tore out the drumstick-paddle from the shaman's right hand.

The Supreme Lama (Kamby-lama) of Tuva, Tenzin Tsultim  called on Tuvan Buddhists to "pray for those who died" in the earthquake and tsunami in Japan", and to "wish them a good reincarnation, and speedy recovery to the country".

"Our hearts are filled with pain and compassion, and we are thinking about distant Japan every second",   the spiritual leader's statement, posted on the official site of Buddhists of Tuva,  reads.

"At this tragic time, the entire Tuvan nation will constantly pray for the brotherly nation of Japan", - emphasizes the Kamby-Lama.

The condition of the snow leopard population in the south part of Shapshal ridge and on the Tsagaan-Shibetu ridge in Tuva is favorable, but the main menace to the irbis still comes from poachers.

That is the conclusion reached by the experts of the expedition which took place with the support of the Altai-Sayan section of WWF after calculation of the numbers of snow leopard and mountain goat. The participants in the project, which ended on March 6, were workers of the "Ubsunur depression" preserve and inspectors from State Committee of Republic Tuva  for Hunting and Fishing.

Today is the birthday of the star of world ethnic music -  one of the most internationally famous Tuvan women - talented, inimitable Sainkhoo Namchylak. Lyudmila Okan-oolovna Namchylak - that is the singer's real name - started her life in a small Tuvan village in a family of schoolteachers in 1957. Her parents loved music very much, and played musical instruments when they were young. Her father had a pleasant baritone, and he often performed with musicians - amateurs in concerts in Tuva. Later the family moved to Kyzyl,, because the head of the family received a new position, and became apolitical supervisor of TASS in Tuvan television. On Sundays, he liked to teach his daughter to sing and dance. Her father also often read poems and verse to his wife and daughters. On one of such evenings, on the holiday of March 8, he dedicated a poem to his wife and to Sainkhoo, with many words which were incomprehensible to the little girl. She looked out the window, where a bridge was lit by yellow beads of street lamps, and thought: "When I grow up like Papa, I will leave over this bridge and go far away, and I will also read my poems."